Digital TV Reception

A

ajschwab

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I am finally getting around to wanting to receive digital TV on the boat. I still have the annalog tv that came with the boat 7 years ago. What do I need to do to receive digital reception while at a marina or on the hook?
 
If you're looking to pick up off-the-air channels via an antenna, you'll need a digital to analog converter box. Not sure what they cost now, but the federal goverment was offering instant rebates a year+ ago.
 
I changed my TV to digital last winter, just bought a cheap Vizio 26" from Sam's that has a built-in digital HD tuner. I installed a dome antenna on the back of the radar arch and pick up about 15 stations over the air in HD. Works great when on the hook or at a marina. Does not work well when moving, reception is spotty when moving so The Admiral or grandkids have to use the Blu-Ray and watch movies.
 
New tv with a digital antenna . The antenna cost about $40, is a square box about the size of an I Pad and is in the cabinet with the TV. Picks up local digital stations great when I switch off the dockside satellite.
 
Note: your original antenna will work with digital TV signals. Digital TV is broadcast on the old UHF bands. As mentioned above, you either need a converter box for your analog TV or a new TV. From my experience, you'll probably do better with a new TV, but the converter box will be cheaper.
 
quote:
Originally posted by mixman

Note: your original antenna will work with digital TV signals. Digital TV is broadcast on the old UHF bands. As mentioned above, you either need a converter box for your analog TV or a new TV. From my experience, you'll probably do better with a new TV, but the converter box will be cheaper.
Click to expand...

Digital TV is on the UHF cnannels and the upper band (7-13) of VHF. Leave it to the US government to screw things up. Since they allowed stations to keep their old channel designations, you can't tell what channel you are actually watching. You can do a web search to find out. In my area, the public broadcasting stations are on the old channel 7 while the rest are on UHF.

Basically, this means that you may need an antenna that works well with high band VHF as well as UHF.

I agree, buy a new TV with a digital tuner. Boats are small enough without a bunch of extra junk and cables.

As for TV reception "on the hook", first, consider a TV that operates on 12 volts DC. You will want an omnidirectional (all direction) antenna because your boat will swing on the hook and you don't want to have to get up and adjust the antenna every time it does. The antennas sold as "marine" antennas are omnidirectional.

There was a thread on this not long ago and based on the thread, I replaced my Dantronics 10" antenna with a Glomex 14" antenna. This made the difference between being frustrated with drop outs and turning the TV off and actually watching TV.

http://www.boatered.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=142697
 
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